


Override (my Entire Nervous System)

by OverMyFreckledBody



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horizon Zero Dawn Fusion, BAMF Stiles, Fluff, Horseback Riding, Kinda, M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Same Age Derek Hale, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 07:03:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11270451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverMyFreckledBody/pseuds/OverMyFreckledBody
Summary: "You trust me, don't you?"Derek glances over his friend again, but Stiles continues to keep his eyes on their enemy, ever the fantastic warrior that he is. Derek can't wait to see him as a Brave, to see him hunting like he longs to, like he has been born to, to see him light up in the praise he'll no doubt get from his father.He cuts his gaze back to the Strider and tightens his grip on his spear. "I'd much sooner trust Scott to cook something edible for once."--Or;A Horizon Zero Dawn au where Stiles is kind of Aloy, but there are major tweaks to that, Derek has a really big crush on him, and Stiles wants to peacock around him in return.





	Override (my Entire Nervous System)

**Author's Note:**

> friend and i are..... not too far into the game. but its super awesome and im LOVING it. i wanted to write smth for it ever since we met Erend (i just love him tbh), but this came out a lot differently than the plot.
> 
> it has some minor spoilers from the beginning, i guess? we havent gotten too far (tallneck? just after that we quit), soooo if youre worried about that then uh. thats a thing. 
> 
> for people who havent played the game/dont care about spoilers but want info on how this shit works - check the end notes, buddy, i got you covered.

Derek didn't know what exactly he should have been expecting when Stiles told him that he wanted to show him something. Especially when it was something that would involve them leaving the safety of their village. Alone.

 

Maybe he was hoping it would be something romantic, some time alone, under the trees, with the excuse of danger to stick close and stay quiet. Maybe he imagined that it would be like some of the thoughts he'd had, daydreaming, of Stiles resting a hand on his face, ignoring how he was marring the paint on his skin, as he pulled him in slowly for a sweet kiss.

 

Or maybe he just wanted to train out here, with some of the weaker Watchers as their prey. With how much of an effort he's been making to get stronger for the Proving, it seems much more likely.

 

It's what he's leaning towards now, anyway, when he reaches for Stiles' wrist to make sure they don't get separated, only for the other boy to pull away, telling him it's not safe. And well, that's fair, Derek supposes. It's harder to reach for one's weapons when their fingers are intertwined with someone else's. It just makes his chest ache a little at rejections like these, even as small as they are, is all.

 

"Now, don't move, or attack, or say anything," Stiles whispers, oblivious to Derek's inner turmoil. Derek's gaze snaps to him, suspicious about just what the hell he's planning. Stiles isn't looking at him, though, but instead at an ever nearing Strider. It's been inching closer to the shrubs they're hiding in, but Stiles hasn't looked worried about it, nor has he signaled for attack.

 

Derek's beginning to wonder if he brought them out here specifically to get them killed.

 

"You trust me, don't you?"

 

Derek glances over his friend again, but Stiles continues to keep his eyes on their enemy, ever the fantastic warrior that he is. Derek can't wait to see him as a Brave, to see him hunting like he longs to, like he has been born to, to see him light up in the praise he'll no doubt get from his father.

 

He cuts his gaze back to the Strider and tightens his grip on his spear. "I'd much sooner trust Scott to cook something edible for once."

 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Stiles' lips twitch, not opening and moving to bring a retort, but just shifting, morphing into an amused, cocky little smile. It's all too clear that he doesn't believe the lie, and Derek is all too familiar with the delightful ball of nerves in his stomach that that knowledge fills him with.

 

The Strider steps forward, still somehow unknowing of their presence, and Stiles tenses all over. Very carefully, he maneuvers his spear around so that the flat end is pointing outwards, despite Derek's bewildered staring. Then, after steadying his grip on his spear, he _whistles_.

 

Is he _insane_? He must really be trying to get them killed, bringing the Machine's attention to them like that.

 

Derek jumps at the sudden, high pitched sound, but the Strider's eye twitches upwards, curious, as it begins to make it's way even closer. "Watch this," Stiles tells him, and the end of his spear sparks to life, turning yellow, with bits of blues and reds and purples and greens cutting through it in strips. Flat slates of a similar looking material spin gradually around it, occasionally flickering from sight, like holograms. Still, that's nothing compared to what Stiles does next.

 

He simply presses it into the Strider's neck, expression still and untroubled.

 

He doesn't expect anything bad to happen to them here. Either that, or he knows they're about to die and he's accepted it, but... even if he won't tell Stiles as much, Derek _does_  trust him. He trusts him in every way he could; not to get them killed, that he knows what he's doing, with anything. It's the reason why he's keeping himself as motionless as possible as well, and not attacking at this open opportunity.

 

Amazingly, whatever Stiles is doing is working. The Strider's light changes, but not to its' defensive red. Instead, it melts to deep blue, casting the color over the plants they've been hiding in and Stiles' lap. Blue, blinking wires protrude from the eye as the neck elongates and they look almost like a mane, flowing down to the shoulders of the Machine.

 

Once it's finished, the spear pops out of whatever pocket of the Strider's neck it had been plugged into, going lax in Stiles' hand. The colors and whirling plates cease, turning back into a perfectly normal end of rod. Neither Stiles, nor the Machine pay it any mind, as it only continues to look at the ground, as if grazing, and Stiles actually steps closer. Derek makes an aborted motion to stop him, but -

 

But the Machine doesn't react in the slightest, not even when Stiles swings one leg over its' middle and throws himself atop it like a steed. When he grips one of the wires between his fingers and tugs sharply, it halts, still as a statue, but otherwise, does not fight him, or run away.

 

"What did you do?" Even as he asks, Derek already knows, because it's really quite obvious. He really can't help it, however, as his brain is still whirling on _how_  it could happen, how this is reality, how Stiles could do this when no one else has been able to even attempt to before.

 

Stiles gives a lopsided smile and his chin drops, staring down at the Machine as one hand combs through its' wires like hair. He's awfully proud of himself and Derek is too, he comes to realize as the shock slowly (very slowly) begins to seep out of him. "Took a piece from that old Corruptor corpse, the one that was spreading the Madness and giving everybody hell. I figured out which part it was using and wondered if I could override the systems as well, but make them come out a lot less... aggressive." He shrugs, like this thought pattern is nothing, not genius. "So, I guess you could say I tamed it."

 

In all actuality, the whole idea is an amazing plan and idea. One that, if brought to the Elders, would probably have him turned into a Brave on the spot, even without the having to go through the test. There is one thing, though, that bothers Derek about this, and without bothering to be tactful, he blurts it out, "So you just came out here, alone, to test and fiddle with equipment you haven't seen before and knew nothing about with monsters that could and given the chance, would kill you?"

 

He almost wants to be wrong about this. Almost wants Stiles to vehemently shake his head and say that this is the first time he's tried it, that he brought Derek with him just in case, but he knows that there isn't even a minuscule chance of that being true. He knows, without a single doubt, that Stiles has checked and rechecked that he knew what he was doing with this, whatever it is, before he even thought about telling Derek about it. That if something were to go wrong, Stiles would be dead, and the secret of this would have died with him.

 

Stiles turns to him quickly and his gaze hardens, obviously irritated at this being treated as as big a deal as it is. He doesn't try to argue, instead only jerking his head over his shoulder and reaching behind him to pat the back of the Strider. "Get on." When Derek doesn't move, only opening his mouth to decline, he takes in a deep breath, but his expression doesn't soften at all. "I didn't bring you out here to fight and this isn't all I wanted to show you. Get on the Machine, Derek."

 

Words he never thought he'd hear in his life.

 

He kind of wants to be contrary and say no. To turn his back and walk to the village, because he'd rather do that than willingly touch an activated Machine, but after a moment of both of them silent and watching each other, something in Stiles' eyes falls a little, like he doesn't expect Derek to trust him on this.

 

He knows, too, that Stiles may have risked his life to find out this new technology, but he's here, now, with Derek instead of anyone else from the village, and wanting to show _him_. He brought Derek because he trusts him, because he knows Derek won't betray his secrecy and tell anyone about this, even if he doesn't think it's a good idea.

 

He climbs onto the back of the goddamn Machine.

 

"You're gonna want to hang on," Stiles mentions, offhand, like it's not that spectacular to be on the back of an activated Machine, feeling it move like a living, breathing animal under him, slightly warm, but not as burning hot as the corpses of the ones they fight. Like it's no big deal that Derek is behind him, practically having an epiphany over all of this, _plus_  the fact that there isn't a lot of space and he's already pressed up against Stiles' back, from his sternum to his groin. "These things go pretty fast."

 

"What do I hold onto?" All there is back here is metal plates, but Derek fears he'd lose a finger trying to wedge a good enough grip onto one of those.

 

He can practically hear the smirk in Stiles' reply as he reaches back with one hand to grab Derek's leg just above the knee, palm warm even through the animal skins, and uses the other to coax the Strider into movement. "Me."

 

 _All-Mother_. Twisting his arms around Stiles' waist, Derek jerks at the sudden uptick in the Strider's speed and roughness, glad that there wasn't anything he needed say in response to that, because he fears his mouth is too dry for anything to come out.

 

Stiles is... quite firm. In fact, a certain part of Derek will be as well if he keeps up on that train of thought. Best to put that out of his head. At least for the remainder of their time out here in the woods.

 

He wonders what he should be expecting to come from this. More mayhem, probably. It always is, with Stiles. He can't say he hasn't grown to love it.

**Author's Note:**

> alrighty for the ppl who dont know what the fuck that was about (or. want to know before they read. whatevever).... world is basically where something happened to humans and destroyed most of the world and now theyre just tribe people, kinda, with some advances in technology but also not. these machines exist, and they either fight/run from ppl when they see them, depending on their type. theyve been known as the main predators in the world. striders look like[ this](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ddU5eHWH4Lg/maxresdefault.jpg).  
> override came with this bitchass scorpion thing that was all 'anyway you guys arent evil enough so lemme just give you this virus okay cool go kill some humans' and so when that ASSFACE was murdered, we looted its body and took out the stinger and used it to essentially tame certain kinds of machines. we ride them like ponies. its fun. 
> 
> as for differences in this world and the game:  
> bitchass scorpion didnt come in when the town was like. in shambles. theyre good. stiles isnt an outcast? but he still wants to be a brave. he can still be a tree person okay sure. derek is not teb, no matter how big a crush that guy has on the main character. he really puts me off. lets just say derek and stiles have been in the same tribe and are friends. okay cool
> 
> ANYWAY thank you for reading this far you kind kind soul. since you ARe this far, it'd be super duper nice if you hit that kudos button to show me, hey yeah, i made it this far. and if you really liked it, a comment would be wonderful, seriously. have a wonderful day/night


End file.
